Ideal Women and Men

Today we talked about the mainstream U.S. ideals for women and men. What do you think of what your classmates came up with? What is missing, if anything?





We will come back to these ideals throughout the semester. We will discuss how we judge others and ourselves based on these "ideals" whether they are achievable, realistic, healthy, good for society, or not. When you do not match with the ideal, you are considered deviant in our society.

We will also discuss how people who identify with the attributes you listed are "the default." One way to think about this is a quick exercise. When you read the word "gender" what comes to mind? For most people in our society, we think "women" or "female." Men have a gender as well, but they are the default. We think of them as neutral, and women as gendered. When you read the word "race" what comes to mind? For most people, we think "African American" or "Asian American" or "Native American" and so forth. Caucasians have a racial categorization as well, but that is not what we think about when we think race. Same with sexual orientation--isn't heterosexual an orientation? When you meet up with the ideals on these lists (white, male, heterosexual, Christian, and so forth) you are seen as neutral; the "default". Everyone else is "the other."